The speaker’s memories take place in fairyland, a place made out of constantly shifting illusions. It represents a state of in-betweenness, being both on the threshold of reality and of oneself: “Everything there was always half something else” (Line 34). This is particularly illustrated in the description of a castle that alternates between two states of being. In this way, fairyland could become a metaphor for threshold periods of life, such as adolescence (a state which can also be considered half one thing and half something else), or threshold identities such as gender fluidity. When the speaker returns to his ordinary life — a world of concrete absolutes — he feels unsatisfied and yearns for that in-between world.